Phineas Kimathi: Global motorsport is transforming, and so are we!

Kenyan motorsport is undergoing a revival that will see it align with global transformation in the sport, the chairman of the Kenya Motorsports Federation (KMSF) Phineas Kimathi has said.

Kimathi told government officials sitting on the WRC Safari Rally’s Local Organising Committee that the pyramid scheme, peaking with the WRC Safari Rally, naturally requires a strong foundation.

He spoke on Monday during the unveiling of the Toyota Yaris Safari Rally route opening car at the WRC Safari Rally’s Kasarani headquarters, joking that such foundation is not akin to the Abunwasi fable of old.  

Abunwasi is a fictional primary school set books character revered for his wisdom, and renowned for his jest, like telling his neighbour to hold onto his storeyed upper floor house because Abunwasi wanted to move with his ground floor house.

Or quoted telling a neighbour that his cooking pot he had borrowed had “died.”

“It's good for us to appreciate the kind of answers or solutions that we are providing for the current problem of our cars not being eligible to take part in the Safari,'” said Kimathi in reference to dwindling numbers of competitors in the Kenya National Rally Championship series which reached its nadir with only 10 taking part in the Eldoret round of the series last Saturday.

“We are thinking beyond just going to a garage and picking somebody with a Subaru Impreza and telling them we are sponsoring you because the question now will be, how long will we sponsor them, yet they are not eligible,” he said.

KMSF is working with sponsors to assist promising drivers in a raft of changes to ensure the sponsors recoup their return on investment through visibility of rallying.

Kimathi said the International Motorsport Federation (FIA) has a structure geared towards making rallying affordable using modern cars, and cited the Yaris as an example.

The Yaris is a 1,600cc car, nimble and fast with a top speed of 280 kilometres per hour, the first being developed by the 1995 F2 WRC Safari Rally winner Azar Anwar, an alumnus of the University of Nairobi’s engineering school.

It will be used as the route opening car in the WRC Safari Rally.

Anwar has already fitted it with an FIA certified roll cage engineered in Kenya, one of the few countries to be gifted with the most sort after cars in the world with orders stretching to 2026 in Japan but Kenya can jump the queue.

This car is owned by celebrated navigator Surinder Thatthi.

“The rallies that we are doing here, whether KNRC or ARC (African championship), we get the template of the rules from Paris and Geneva.

“We don’t make those rules. Our certified head of technical department, the chief scrutineer Musa Locho, can affirm.

“So, the thinking needs to be expanded beyond talking about going to take a Toyota Levin,” he added.

Drivers are without competitive cars, and many, as confirmed by Nation Sport, complain of lacking proper machines as they are also worried of the political environment, coming in post Covid-19 global economic crunch.

It has been clarified that rallying is undergoing lean times but the KMSF is working in close collaboration with the FIA to make the sport affordable.

The federation has appointed Thatthi to manage the national championship category of the WRC Safari Rally to enable local drivers compete in the world round from June 23 to 26 in Nairobi and Naivasha.

''These are the programmes we want to encourage and say proudly this car (the Yaris) is actually converted by our local engineers.

“We have experience and that is a reason we want to inspire Kenyans,” said Kimathi, who is working closely with Toyota Kenya to make the Yaris affordable, because current machines like the Mitsubishi EVO X will be ineligible to compete from next year.

Anwar added that he has developed the car to competition standards. The Yaris is a 1,600cc car with a 280kph top speed.

It will have many makes, like the competitive Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi EVO X, for breakfast, yet it will cost just a fraction of the amount used to purchase fast cars locally.

“We have noted of fears of the gradual demise of the KNRC,” Kimathi told the Kenya Government-appointed Local Organising Committee.

“Please tell the government to allow importation of duty free spare parts to make the sporting cars affordable.”